Antithetical dream girl.
Summary: You never knew how to deal with feelings in a healthy normal way, usually you never liked anyone enough to have to face that problem but Corey was different and he made you feel stronger things anyone has ever made you feel before.
Pairing: Pre accident! Corey Cunningham x fem!reader.
Trigger warnings: Bullying, family issues, angst?
You have hated him ever since you met him.
Or at least that's what you told yourself to make yourself feel better and at peace. You didn't grow up in a very healthy household and never really learned how to show feelings in a healthy way.
Plus ever since you started to be more conscious about what was happening around you, you started to notice how the majority of relationships ended. And you didn't like that so considering your awful life at home, your inability to show positive feelings and your vision of love, your brain didn't have it easy growing up.
As you got older you decided to just ignore your attraction towards people, you weren't heartless and had friends and treated them well but never liked anyone romantically for longer than three days.
Except for him. Corey Cunningham. Ever since you met him you hated him and his stupid perfect face, his stupid perfect hair, his stupid perfect personality, his stupid perfect grades and specially his stupid perfect patience.
You met him in high school. Sadly for you, you two shared a lot of classes together and he was seated next to you in most of them. You were a great students and teachers wanted you to help him if it was necessary which in most cases wasn't.
He always tried to talk to you and he was always nice no matter how much you ignored him or how many times you threw passive aggressive comments his way.
You didn't want to do that, you really didn't. But there was something you didn't want even more, becoming his friend and eventually accepting the fact that you liked him romantically.
Deep down you knew that if you got close to him you would just like him more, if that was even possible.
Usually you would ignore someone and that was enough to push them away but Corey was different. He was a people pleaser and at some point he did stop trying to make small talk, which made you sad ironically enough, but he still talked to you here and there.
The fact that he didn't gave up on the idea of getting on your good side just made you like him more. God couldn't he stop being this perfect doll for 5 minutes?
When classes came closer to an end your troubled feelings just became worse. You were embarrassed to admit this but you even cried because of this. A big part of you that was built by trust issues and sadness was relieved that you weren't gonna see him again ever hopefully.
But another part of you that sometimes felt even bigger and was just aching to be vulnerable and loved was so sad by the idea of not seeing him everyday. If he wasn't there to bright up your days with his smile, corny jokes and random fun facts about anything, your days just seemed lifeless and boring.
He was the one person you actually cared about seeing. Obviously your friends too but it was different. You didn't even know you were able to feel this way.
But still your pride and your conformity with loneliness wouldn't let you even accept your feelings for him to yourself. So you just put on this image of being a bitch that hated him.
Fake it till you make it you told yourself. But you never made it.
You started to work as a babysitter. And he did too which you didn't ask about but he told you himself in class when you two had finished your assignments first and had nothing to do. To which you answered with a cold "good for you" that had a hint of venom laced with it.
Imagine your surprise when you two were hired for babysitting the same kid the same night by accident and without you two knowing. You got to the house first and after you knocked and were waiting for the door to be opened, Corey arrived and smiled seeing you there.
"Hey, how are you?" He said with a happy tone of voice.
You looked him up and down trying to verify that your brain wasn't playing tricks on you. "What are you doing here?"
He was used to you ignoring his question or answering reluctantly. "I was hired to babysit here, you?"
"No, I was." You were about to start an argument but were cut short by the mother of the kid opening the door.
"Oh my." She said and looked at the two of you many times realizing her mistake. "I'm so sorry, come on in." You two shared a confused look before reluctantly coming in. "I accidentally hired the two of you, I could've swear I only hired one but it seems I forgot and hired someone twice. I'm so sorry kids."
You looked awkwardly at her and then Corey and looked away as fast as you could when you made eye contact with him.
"Why don't you both stay?" She asked suddenly looking like she was hit by this amazing idea.
"I don't know Miss I-" You were cut off by the mom.
"Please, I insist, is getting late. Plus I love my daughter but I know Charlotte can be a bit of a troublemaker and is not easy to take care of her alone. And I could pay the both of you full price." She said looking at her watch, she was probably running late for wherever she was going.
"It sounds fine by me." Said Corey making himself look like a fallen angel as per usual.
Both Corey and the woman looked at you. "You know what? It sounds awesome actually." You said giving her your best smile while not even looking Corey's way.
After she said her goodbyes and left, you two watched a movie and played tea party with Charlotte, the girl you were babysitting.
When her bedtime got closer, you were the one to put her to sleep by reading her a princess book she had in her nightstand.
She wasn't such a bad kid and asked you some random and childish questions such as what you thought about certain princesses she liked before going to sleep. She also asked you if you liked Corey but you just told her that it was getting late and you could answer her questions another day.
After putting her to sleep you made your way to the kitchen were Corey was, you poured yourself a glass of water trying to ignore his presence.
"Thanks for putting her to sleep." He said in an honest way.
"It's nothing." You said coldly before looking somewhere else while drinking your water.
"Can I ask you something?" You sighed at his question and looked his way. He wasn't smiling as per usual and had a sad looking expression.
"I don't think I have a choice, so yeah go ahead I guess."
He frowned while looking at you before asking. "Why do you always treat me like shit?"
You couldn't help the expression of surprise that was suddenly painted on your face. "Wow, thats the first time I ever heard you curse. Aren't you scared someone might find out and it might go on your perfect record?" You said with a venomous smile on your face.
Internally you were holding in tears, not because Corey finally defended himself but because you knew that there was no escape now, you had to face your feelings. "Just answer the question, what did I do that was so bad that you have this constant need to be mean to me for no reason?"
"Nothing Corey, you just can't be liked by everyone okay? It doesn't matter how perfect and amazing you are, some people just don't like you and that's it, that's real life. Face it." You tried to look somewhere else so he wouldn't see how your eyes started to become shiny thanks to the tears in them.
"I'm not perfect and you don't even know me to be making that kind of assumptions. And I get that you don't like me, you don't have to like me but why are you such a bitch about it?" He never talked like this to anyone before, and it even surprised him that he was talking to you like this.
He was used to being bullied and isolated but it hit different when he was being basically bullied and isolated by someone he liked as much as he liked you. And he did everything he could to let you know he liked you but it only seemed to make you dislike him even more. He thought it was because you thought he was disgusting but now you were telling him you thought he was perfect? You were messing with his mind in a whole new level.
"I don't know you but I see you everyday and I have to see your perfect face and perfect hair and perfect personality everywhere I go. You have such good grades but you're so stupid, how do you not realize I don't want you near me!?" You were trying not to scream but it was hard not to raise your voice, luckily the house had thick walls.
"I do, okay? I just wanna know why, what did I do that was so bad for you to don't even give me a chance?" He was trying not to scream as well but you could hear the desperation on his voice and that made you feel even more guilty.
You couldn't hold the tears in anymore and ended up breaking down crying resting your hands on the counter and looking down. "You made me doubt myself. That's what you did." You said trying not to sob.
Corey was completely shocked by your reaction. He couldn't help but feel guilty. "What do you mean?" He said while getting closer very slowly.
"I always thought that liking people was something horrible and dangerous. I never liked anyone until you came into my life, and I hate you for that. You make me want to be vulnerable and you make me want to spend time in getting to know you and I just..." You started sobbing while hiding your face on your hands.
You felt pathetic and you understood if he hated you. You were surprised when you felt his hand on your arm and looked at him finding him smiling sympathetically and concernedly at you. He felt as if this was the real first time he made eye contact with you.
"Why did you never told me? Why did you act like that?" He asked softly slowly starting to caress your arm.
"I just didn't know what to do." Making eye contact with him just made you feel ten times more guilty. You understood if he hated you for the rest of his life but now you felt truly sorry. "I'm so sorry Corey you didn't deserve that. You were always nice to me and I tried to push you away just because of my personal believes and issues and..." you looked at him in the eyes while trying to find the words, they were so pretty you felt sorry you didn't look at them more "I apologize, I understand if you hate me and start treating me like I treated you or worse even, I deserve it."
You really felt that way. Your feelings were an atomic bomb waiting to explode and it had just exploded on your face.
Corey surprisingly hugged you and let out some tears while doing so. "I forgive you."
You couldn't believe what you heard. But it was very on brand for him to be like this so partially you could actually. You parted from the hug partially to look at him. "You don't have to." You really wanted him to forgive you but honestly you felt like you didn't deserve that, or him.
"I know, but I want to." He smiled at you letting out a few more tears. "With one condition."
"Yes, anything." It felt weird to all of the sudden want to be on his good side. But the right kind of weird.
"We'll start again and on the right foot this time, okay?" You smiled at his request and nodded energetically.
You parted from the hug and wiped your tears before shaking his hands and presenting yourself again.
It was corny, unusual for you and also cheesy but that was exactly what you wanted. Maybe you would get in a relationship and eventually end up hurting from it but you didn't care as long as you got to be with Corey.
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